• Melllvar
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The meaning of “planet” has changed greatly over the centuries as our understanding improved. It originally meant “wanderer” and referred to the five naked-eye planets known since antiquity plus the sun and moon, but NOT the Earth.

    As astronomers and astrophysicists learned more about them, it became clear that classifying all stellar objects as the same category was unworkable. Earth was reclassified as a planet, the moon as a moon, and the sun as a star.

    Likewise, Pluto was reclassified because the old classification made little sense.

    • Maharashtra@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      …and, given time and enough of a change to relevant peoples’ mindset, so does the classification of both some animals and humans might change.

      Because that’s how science was, is and will ever be - a mutable “phenomenon”, where rigidity means lack of progress.

      I see no problem in that.